I’m a big supporter of the SOA program and public land in general. If there are any influential people reading this I think the state should include an optional $5 or $10 donation when buying a license that goes solely towards funding purchase of more property for SOAs or WMAs. Or maybe something like a mandatory $1 donation when applying for SOA hunts. Or something similar to that, just ideas. Something that doesn’t hurt anybody to donate but makes a big difference when pooled together. Doesn’t seem like a lot of money but it would add up fast. What a lot of people don’t realize is we get matching federal funds for money we put up for land purchase as a state.

And there needs to be protection against siphoning of the funds by politicians for any purpose other than purchasing of property or maintenance of those properties. And let current license money pay for enforcement and whatever else it is currently paying for. This needs to be money for acquiring land and nothing else. Hell let’s keep it out of Montgomery altogether. Put it in some kind of trust that wildlife officials control.

I personally would want this money to go towards purchase of property and not lease. To permanently protect some large tracts of land from development or fragmentation. I know Forever Wild serves that purpose, but we need more public hunting land. And we need funding for purchase of land solely for hunting. The smaller tracts that Forever Wild buys that are not open to hunting are good, but they have to be pretty expensive per acre. They are buying them for landmark and environmental significance. Some of the money is going towards leasing WMA land also, which is good but not permanent. On top of all this, we have politicians that try to kill the program even though the overwhelming majority of the state supports it.

I think state officials would be surprised to see how much support Alabama sportsman would give public land and conservation if given the opportunity. I think the state it doing a great job now, probably better than they should be with the limited funding they get and the swampy opposition. Maybe we could do our part to preserve some hunting opportunities for our kids.